Chapter 1036: Soul Foundation Forging

Back when Xiang Shaoyun was still a Martial Hall Palace disciple, he had once obtained a tiny piece of lightning strike wood. However, the piece he had obtained back then was far inferior to the one he was currently facing.

The one before him was most definitely a lightning strike wood that had taken 10,000 years to grow, one that had been baptized by time and had only been created after being struck by countless lightning strikes. It was a true unique wood capable of summoning tens of thousands of lightning bolts.

Since Xiang Shaoyun wanted to cultivate the power of lightning, this piece of lightning strike wood would help him summon endless lightning bolts to enhance his cultivation. He would no longer need to use all his effort just to summon a limited number of lightning bolts. What he could do personally was far from what the lightning strike wood could do. Furthermore, such a piece of 10,000-year-old lightning strike wood could easily summon mutated lightning bolts.

Before Xiang Shaoyun could do anything, he noticed a mutated lightning power near him. After putting the lightning strike wood away, his gaze landed on the clump of sealed purple energy. Its origin surfaced in his mind.

"Starfall lightning, an extremely rare mutated lightning power, one that can destroy even stars. This is the seed of a lightning power unique to me in my previous life," said Xiang Shaoyun in excitement. He was about to release the lightning seed, but he hesitated and stopped. Instead, he pushed another drop of his blood essence out and imbued the lightning seed with it.

He had to first form a resonance with the lightning seed before he could refine it for his own use. Otherwise, with his current strength, he wouldn't be able to withstand any backlash that might arise if the lightning seed were to reject him.

The moment his blood seeped into the starfall lightning, electrical currents crackled about and instantly destroyed the drop of blood. He frowned at the sight of that. This was the seed of the lightning power he had tamed in his previous life. It should already be infused with his aura. Why was it rejecting his blood?

"Is it because my blood essence in this life is different from my past life's blood essence? Is that why it is rejecting my blood?" Xiang Shaoyun muttered doubtfully.

After spending some time in thought, he pushed out another drop of blood essence. This time, he wrapped the innate lightning energy of his lightning bone around the drop of blood, hoping to form a resonance with the starfall lightning this way. Sure enough, after using his lightning bone, the starfall lightning reacted and stopped resisting his blood essence.

Now, Xiang Shaoyun only needed to remove the seal to proceed with fusing with the starfall lightning. However, he still didn't dare to. He was afraid that he wouldn't be able to withstand its power, and this was not a good time to make an attempt. He wanted to first break through into the Soul Foundation Realm before absorbing the starfall lightning, which would be the most optimal method.

Once again, he shifted his attention to the pile of materials on the ground. The pile contained beast materials, man-made materials, and numerous natural treasures. They were all rare treasures that had been preserved for a long period of time, and each was incredibly valuable and rare.

After searching about for a bit, he picked up a purple stone from the pile. Joy covered his face as he said, "Lightning motion stone, a high-tier material for forming one's soul foundation."

Each high-tier material was extremely hard to find. During his previous life, he had accumulated some treasures for himself, and this lightning motion stone was one of them. With the black tides mystic stone, primal divine stone, and the lightning motion stone in his possession, he had soul foundation forging materials of seven elements in his hands. He still lacked materials of the wind and light elements before he could form a soul foundation of nine elements.

A soul foundation like that was unheard of, but Xiang Shaoyun wanted to give it a try, as he had a feeling he would succeed. He started searching through his personal collection. Soon, his gaze landed on the yin wind stone. This was something he had gotten from the Sinister Wind Den. It was capable of gathering wind, but it was only a mid-tier material.

Fortunately, from the pile of gifts given to him by the angel priest, he found a high-tier material of the light element, the calming divine stone.

"The yin wind stone is somewhat lacking, but it is still a mid-tier material. Used with all the other materials I have, I should be able to forge a top-tier soul foundation," said Xiang Shaoyun, who decided to use the materials he had to forge his soul foundation.

He immediately put his decision into action. He gathered all the materials together and started the forging process. Soul foundation forging was an important step in the path of cultivation. Many people didn't even know how to forge a soul foundation, and they all imagined it to be an incredibly hard process.

In truth, the process wasn't that complicated, but there were two conditions that one must meet before proceeding with the forging process. Firstly, one's soul must reach a level where one could fuse one's soul power into the materials. Without reaching that level, one would never be able to enter the Soul Foundation Realm.

Secondly, one's spirit and energy must be one. In other words, one's soul and energy must fuse and resonate with one another. Only then would one be able to turn the materials into one's soul foundation. So long as one fulfilled both those conditions, forging a soul foundation wouldn't be hard.

With his memories from his past life, he already had experience in soul foundation forging. He was in perfect condition and had all materials prepared. This would be the best time for him to forge his soul foundation.

Xiang Shaoyun breathed for a bit as the nine stars within him started shining brightly. Strands of energy flowed toward his head, forming a roaring nine-colored dragon. His soul also infused the nine-colored dragon with his soul power, forming the strongest spirit energy. He then released the Nether Soul Domain and used it to cover the stones. The nine-colored dragon coiled around the materials and started fusing with them.

Generally speaking, the materials he was using were incomparably tough. One would not be able to refine them with ordinary methods, but since Xiang Shaoyun wanted to forge his soul foundation, he had to fuse them all. And to do so, he had to form a resonance between them, dissolve them, and then combine them. For that, comprehension of the profundities of powers was necessary.

Instantly, the profundities of gold, wood, water, flame, earth, wind, lightning, light, and darkness resonated with each other.

Strands of astral energy weaved around the materials

, and the energies contained in the materials were pulled out and fused with their respective profundity. Slowly, all the different energies combined into a single clump of energy, fusing and gradually turning into a platform. The platform looked rather crude, and much work still needed to be done to it.

Xiang Shaoyun had to slowly infuse all he knew into it, leaving his soul marks on it to form a true soul foundation. In the future, as he grew in strength, he would leave more soul marks on the soul foundation. With that, he would be able to add more layers to his soul foundation. Each layer and soul mark would represent his growth in strength.